Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. left, and his opponent Andy Lee posed for pictures at a press conference in the Sun Bowl Tuesday. Just prior to the event, the UT System chancellor disallowed the June 16 fight to happen there citing security concerns. Promoters are now looking for another venue in Texas but outside El Paso.

The Julio César Chávez Jr. and Andy Lee WBC world middleweight championship fight scheduled for June 16 in Sun Bowl Stadium has been blocked by the University of Texas System's chancellor's office.

Hall of Fame boxing promoter Bob Arum told the El Paso Times before Tuesday's scheduled news conference, "An hour ago the esteemed chancellor of the University of Texas System called the president of UTEP and said the fight cannot be held at UTEP, not here in the Sun Bowl -- not here or in the Don Haskins Center -- because of security reasons. We will fight this decision. But the fight will go on -- here or in Houston or in the Alamodome (in San Antonio)."

The fight is expected to be a good one. Chávez Jr., son of Mexico's boxing legend Julio César Chávez, is 45-0-1 with 31 knockouts. He is enormously popular -- partially because of his good looks, partly because of his father and very much because of his aggressive style of fighting. Lee, a member of Ireland's 2004 Olympic team, is 28-1, with 20 knockouts.

The matchup was scheduled as a reprise to the wildly popular Oscar De La Hoya-Patrick Charpentier fight in 1998 that Arum promoted in Sun Bowl Stadium, an event that drew 45,368 fans.

Arum, the CEO of Top Rank Boxing, was irate Tuesday.

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"High security is a code for something else," Arum said. "You figure it out. The problem was not with UTEP. This university has been great. The fight will happen June 16, and the fight will happen in Texas. Unfortunately, it may not be in El Paso."

The chancellor of the UT System is Francisco Gonzalez Cigarroa of Laredo, and his office would not give more details about blocking the fight in El Paso, referring only to the news release, in which it was stated that "the Sun Bowl on the UTEP campus is not the appropriate venue for this event."

However, El Paso city Rep. Steve Ortega called the chancellor's office, expressing his outrage at the decision, saying that the decision paints El Paso in a bad light.

"I let them know their decision lacked merit," Ortega said. "They told me that the University of Texas security assessment was such that they would have precluded the event at any UT facility -- whether it be Austin or San Antonio or El Paso. They said the decision was not UTEP-centric or El Paso-centric.

"But this is one in a long line of actions our state leaders have made that put our city in a bad light," Ortega said. "I asked them to please reflect it was not El Paso-centric. Again, they said it was based on a security assessment of the event -- not the location of the fight."

El Pasoan Paul Foster is one of nine members of the UT Board of Regents.

"As one who lives in El Paso, I am personally very disappointed by this cancellation," Foster said in a statement. "I believe the event would have created a large draw among El Paso and Juárez boxing fans, as well as been a boost to El Paso's image on national television. Having said that, I can appreciate the concern of the UT System officials. In a personal conversation with the UT System chancellor, the rationale for canceling the event was explained and I was given detailed reasons UTEP and the Sun Bowl would not be an appropriate venue for this specific event.

"Those reasons are based solely on security and safety concerns," Foster said. "UT System officials reiterated this was their decision alone, and not an action by the UT Board of Regents. I realize this was a very tough call for the University of Texas System officials to make. I know that risk assessments by the UT System are carried out for all UT campuses, not just for UTEP, and I have been assured that this cancellation is event-specific. This should not be seen as a negative reflection on our community or on UTEP."

Lee Samuels, longtime publicist for Top Rank, said, "All our demos (demographics) on Julio are that he attracts young people, a lot of families with children. All our fights have been a very festive atmosphere -- no trouble at all."

Chavez Jr.'s last two fights have been in Houston and San Antonio. He defended his world middleweight title Feb. 4 in San Antonio's Alamo dome. Sgt. Javier Salazar, a spokesman for the San Antonio Police Department, said there were no major problems at that event.

"It is my belief that this fight went off without any major issues," Salazar said. "Here in San Antonio, we are fortunate in that our sports-loving way of life is able to prevent many of the concerns seen in other sporting events in other large cities."

Chavez Jr. fought in UTEP's Don Haskins Center in 2006, scoring a fourth-round technical knockout over Jermaine White. It was before he became so enormously popular (he has been the top-drawing fighter on HBO for the past two years), but he was still very well known. There were no problems that night.

El Paso officials have expressed their outrage at the decision. Most note that El Paso has been named among the top five safest cities of more than 500,000 population in the United States every year since 1997, and was named the safest city in the U.S. in 2010.

"I think that's outrageous," said U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, during a news conference after appearing with former President Bill Clinton at the El Paso County Coliseum. "I think that is more bush-league politics coming out of Austin, more than anything else. I think it speaks very badly, that they don't support border communities like El Paso. It's millions of dollars (lost) for El Paso, plus the exposure worldwide.

"It's not based on reality," Reyes said. "Conservatives and Republicans have tried to paint the border as violent."

Reyes said he will look at the hometowns of the regents so he can compare crime rates.

Mayor John Cook said, "It was extremely ignorant of the chancellor when people make remarks like that (about border violence) and don't consider the consequences to communities like El Paso. Is this chancellor thinking of closing the UTEP campus down? If the Sun Bowl is so dangerous to the athletes, is this chancellor thinking about the students on campus? Is he thinking of canceling all of the UTEP home games? I'm very upset somebody in his position would do something like that.

"It is the thing that is in the national news, that a major sporting event is canceled because it is dangerous because we are on the border -- that's the danger," Cook said. "I do intend to contact that chancellor and give him a piece of my mind."

State Sen. José Rodríguez said in a statement, "I strongly oppose the decision by the UT System to cancel this fight, especially without consulting local officials regarding any potential threat. This is just one more example of what happens when our state leaders disregard the facts by falsely calling border communities 'war zones' without any evidence to support their claims.

"Decisions such as these hurt our local economy and tarnish the image of border communities," Rodríguez said. "El Paso is not only one of the safest communities in Texas, it is one of the safest in the nation. There have been several events such as this in El Paso -- including a boxing match at UTEP last weekend (in the Don Haskins Center) -- with no incidents. The decision to cancel this fight due to the fears of border violence only reinforces to the negative perception of El Paso and will have a lasting impact on the community for years to come."

William Blaziek, general manager of the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau, said in a statement, "The decision by the University of Texas System chancellor to cancel the Julio César Chávez Jr. versus Andy Lee fight on June 16 citing concerns of safety and that the UTEP campus is not the appropriate venue for this event came as a shock to the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"Implying that border violence is reason for cancellation is inflammatory and damaging to the image and reputation of El Paso and is not based in fact," Blaziek said. "El Paso has consistently been named the safest city in the United States. Additionally, Sun Bowl Stadium is more than just a campus venue -- it is a community venue hosting the nationally significant Sun Bowl football bowl game and community events such as Monster Jam, the Rolling Stones, and soccer matchups. We call upon the UT System to reconsider its decision."

Juárez City Manager Héctor Arceluz said that cancellation of the fight between Julio César Chávez Jr. and Andy Lee in Sun Bowl Stadium for security concerns does not contribute to the sense of family between Juárez and El Paso.

"Those statements don't foster in any way the brotherhood that should prevail between the sister cities of Juárez and El Paso," Arceluz said in a telephone interview. "I am puzzled about those remarks. Citing security reasons was a lame excuse to cancel the fight."

Arum said Top Rank would make an announcement by the end of the week to let boxing fans know where the fight will be held.

"It's just a shame ... a real shame," Arum said. "We had great fights, we had a band, we were planning fireworks. It would have been a wonderful event. It will still be a great event, a great, great fight -- just maybe not in El Paso. It's a shame."

Arum and the two fighters -- Chávez Jr. and Lee -- held a brief news conference Tuesday. They all posed for pictures and signed autographs when it was done.

And then they were gone, leaving Sun Bowl Stadium empty -- just as it well may be on June 16.